Latest news with #EddieDempsey
New Statesman
4 days ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
Eddie Dempsey on why Britain needs a trade union revival
Eddie Dempsey, photographed by David Sandison for the New Statesman In a quiet corner of King's Cross, London, is a small pocket of an old world. The office of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' Union (RMT) is a time capsule for the 20th-century left. Appropriately, the building stands opposite an interwar housing estate based on Vienna's Karl-Marx-Hof, an icon of the faded tradition of municipal socialism. (Just down the road is a blue-plaqued building where Lenin once resided.) At the reception in the RMT's Unity House lies a pile of copies of the Communist Party-affiliated Morning Star. Its corridors and rooms are adorned with left-wing, proletarian nostalgia: hammer and sickle coasters, strike memorial badges, gifts from comrade brothers in the Teamsters, and busts of heroic dead leftists. But the RMT is still very much alive – growing, in fact, despite the general decline of trade union membership in the Britain that Thatcher built. The union has a reputation for political and industrial militancy, provoking frothing editorials from the press for its ability to periodically bring the capital to a halt. But it can also claim credit for securing decent, liveable London salaries for its members – a rare thing in today's world. I was at the RMT's office to meet Eddie Dempsey, who became its general secretary earlier this year after Mick Lynch retired. During his tenure, Lynch was renowned for his blunt put-downs of hapless, confused junior ministers and calm eviscerations of Partridge-esque breakfast television presenters. Dempsey welcomed me with a comically firm handshake. At 43 he is baby-faced, but embodies the old-school London pie-and-mash bloke, somewhere between the former Apprentice contestant Thomas Skinner and Arthur Scargill. He pointed to a wall of black and white photographs behind him in the grand meeting room, depicting a century of the union's leadership. 'I'm the 18th, by the way,' he told me. 'He retired; he retired; he died; he died; he was sacked; he died.' You got the sense that he was doing a bit. He paused on one photo: 'Him up there, he got pancaked. Flattened by an articulated lorry. In Stalingrad, no less.' After our interview, I looked this up. One Jimmy Campbell, a former RMT general secretary, did indeed die in Stalingrad – not in the bloody Second World War battle, of course, but in a car accident during a visit to the Soviet Union in 1957. This gives some clue as to the union's historic political proclivities, which are still very much apparent. 'My politics are pretty straightforward,' Dempsey said. 'I want to see people being able to work and have a good standard of living. I want them to have public services that educate you, look after you when you're sick, and give you retirement in dignity. I want to rebuild communities and rebuild a sense of shared responsibility. And I want a world that lives in peace.' But Dempsey's politics haven't always been so straightforward and anodyne. He is fervently pro-Brexit; in some liberal-left circles that's enough to place you beyond the realm of political acceptability. The RMT stood out among a Remain-orientated labour movement for its opposition to EU membership (not least because of the bloc's restrictions on state interventions and public ownership). In Dempsey's world-view, there is some crossover with the ideological hinterland of the Corbyn project – the harder-edged, workerist, industrial wing, rather than the putative 'kinder, gentler' crowd that mixed a more middle-class, hippyish aesthetic with links to foreign jihadis. The Labour left, Dempsey told me, 'went wrong going into the 2019 election with an incoherent policy on Brexit'. A full-blooded 'Lexit' position would have rescued Labour's fraying connection with working-class Leave voters, he contended – a view that was shared by several senior figures in Corbyn's office at the time. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe More controversially, in 2015 Dempsey visited the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and was pictured with pro-Russian separatists. He told me this was 'part of a humanitarian visit' prompted by the deaths of trade unionists at the hands of ultra-nationalists in Odesa the previous year. Nevertheless, as head of one of the most visible, public-facing organisations in the British labour movement, at a time of ongoing war in Ukraine, Dempsey may find this episode is not easily forgotten. Eddie Dempsey was born in 1982 in south London to Irish parents. He grew up on New Cross's Woodpecker Estate, before starting work on the railways in his twenties. I tell him I lived in New Cross for nearly a decade and we share our appreciation for the Marquis of Granby pub on New Cross Road. 'I grew up in that pub really,' he said. 'I'm going to be having my father's wake in there next week.' The Granby hosts a mixed crowd of working-class, established locals and student pretenders – art-school hipsters and earnest humanities undergrads – from nearby Goldsmiths, University of London. If the contemporary left has become associated with the post-2008 wave of 'millennial socialism' backed by this kind of progressive-liberal graduate class, then Dempsey – like Lynch and the late Bob Crow before him – represents something older: a throwback to an era when left politics was spearheaded by blue-collar trade union firebrands. A friend familiar with the culture of RMT describes it as 'a madhouse' – a strange place where balding cockneys of a certain vintage can discuss the differences between a Bolshevik and a Menshevik, a Tankie or a Trot. Movement leaders such as Lynch and Crow were informed less by the academy, the professoriate or social media platforms, and more by workplace organising. Dempsey is no different. 'I was a union rep within six months,' he said of his early days in the workplace. 'I became embroiled in union activity from day one. So I didn't really get into politics as such, I got involved in trade unionism, which then becomes political as you progress.' His father was a deep-sea sailor. 'The dock shut in '81. A lot of people were laid off,' he said. The recent history of London's former docklands is an apt microcosm of the British economy as a whole over the past half century. Amid chronic unemployment, closed ports were declared an enterprise zone, deregulated banks were lured to invest with tax breaks, and swathes of working-class east London was redeveloped into the global financial centre that's now Canary Wharf. Dempsey, a proud south Londoner, interprets this as a story of decline rather than regeneration. 'In my father's day, when he went to sea, a lot of workplaces were closed shops,' he said. 'Everyone was in a union. You couldn't get on the dock without being in the union. Life was better in some ways. Your wages could pay for things that you wanted. You could buy a house if you had a normal job. You could take a holiday. You could buy a car. Employment was secure. A lot of people can't do these things now.' The ultimate prize for RMT's new general secretary would be a 21st-century version of this postwar era of security: the end of the five-decade experiment in neoliberalism, the restoration of corporatist labour relations, and the pursuit of a more statist economic strategy. The means and method to achieving this, Dempsey said, is securing Scandinavian-style, nationwide, sectoral collective bargaining. 'At one stage, about 80 per cent of contracts of employment in Britain were covered by these kinds of agreements,' he told me. 'Now it's about a quarter, and the result has been stark: declining living standards, and a massive shift in power away from working-class people. So we're determined that the trade union movement demands it's restored. The future depends on it.' The Labour Party, for its part, has committed to introducing such a system in social care, with unions negotiating pay and conditions with representatives of employers across the industry nationwide. But it's unclear whether this will be replicated in other sectors. 'This government has made some important steps in the right direction,' Dempsey said, not just on employment rights, but also on some long-time, totemic demands of the British left, such as the nationalisation of the railways. And yet, all the political momentum today is with the populist right. The union man's Championship team, Millwall FC, are known (among other things) for a terrace chant, sung to the tune of Rod Stewart's 'Sailing': 'No one likes us, we don't care.' It's a mantra that could just easily have been adopted by sections of the progressive-activist class militantly pushing causes that have little or no resonance with the wider public. 'Our political culture has been focused on the things that divide us for too long,' Dempsey said. In 2019, during the interminable Brexit negotiations, Dempsey was the subject of an online fracas. The journalists Ash Sarkar and Owen Jones, alongside the Labour MP Clive Lewis, pulled out of a rally because of his attendance. He had been accused of racism for stating that he empathised with the working-class followers of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, and their hatred of the liberal political class. Many also took issue with his support for a no-deal Brexit. Today, Dempsey shrugs off the incident, but has little time for the very-online left, which he describes as 'destabilising and debilitating. I've always argued that just abandoning parts of the working class in favour of the more well-educated types is not going to work in the long run. 'We've got to find those common bonds, and I think the reconstruction of the trade union movement has to be a part of that. I don't think people realise just how much we've lost… The trade union wasn't just a card you carried into work… There was a whole broad architecture of what was the working class and its institutions in Britain that's been pulled away. It gave a sense of community, a sense of dignity and togetherness, and it gave people a framework [through which] they were able to articulate what they thought about society, to articulate a political view.' The sense of collectivity that came from organised labour, as well as the institutional architecture of workplace branches, mass memberships and political education, has given way to individualism and the purity-rituals of cancel culture. Left politics and class consciousness are now less determined by organising and more by an individual's adherence to a set of ever-shifting progressive mores. 'A lot of the movement has been dragged away,' Dempsey said, 'and what people have tended to do is demonise and insult people that they disagree with politically. That doesn't help us, but that has been the approach… People have become obsessed about what's in people's heads.' The radical left may be ailing, but politicians of the Fabian centre left aren't faring too well either. Despite the 'steps in the right direction' Dempsey describes, Labour's leadership has spent its first year in power shedding support in all directions. What's going wrong? 'We're living under a dictatorship of the bond markets,' Dempsey replied. Even Donald Trump has been tamed by bond traders. 'The government is scared to invest.' We spoke before Rachel Reeves delivered her Spending Review, which combined capital spending with a continued squeeze on day-to-day departmental budgets. This broad fiscal policy picture is unlikely to shift the dial decisively towards national renewal, still less be the starting gun for constructing a new, post-neoliberal economic model. 'I don't believe the trade union movement should be a committee for arguing for a bigger slice of an ever-dwindling public expenditure pie,' Dempsey said. 'We've got to be addressing the economic reality: we need to rebuild the country. We can't rely on imports of wage-producing goods. We cannot rely on the chaotic situation that we've had for the past 40 years. It doesn't work any more. It doesn't deliver better living standards any more. The only way we're going to change it is by having proper investment. We've got staggering profits, falling living standards and wages, and a really, really low level of investment – and that's business investment as well as government investment. 'We can't just be an association of banks with a country attached any more. We need to be making things. We need a real economy, with high-tech manufacturing and infrastructure. And today, you can't rely on the market to deliver that.' This is an analysis that will be familiar to many New Statesman readers. The UK is in its second decade of declining living standards, and the deterioration of the public realm continues apace. 'People's lives feel chaotic,' Dempsey told me, 'the social fabric has been torn away.' Our industrial base is threadbare. The financialised, debt-driven, service-dependent economic model no longer generates growth. The ethereal nature of a digital 'knowledge economy' became apparent during Covid. Britain is tired and worn out, its real wealth increasingly concentrated in the capital's property bubbles and the glass-and-steel edifices of its tertiary sectors. Against this bleak backdrop, a figure like Eddie Dempsey espousing a bread-and-butter, populist socialism might be seen less as an anachronism and more as a welcome antidote to the moribund left and progressive gentrification. As much of the electorate joins the Faragist revolt, could a revived, popular trade unionism lead a fightback? 'We've got to focus on providing people a good standard of living and bringing people together,' the RMT leader said. 'And I wouldn't mind the beer price coming down, and Millwall being promoted. If I can have all that – I'm happy.' Hapless junior ministers and Partridge-like TV hosts: beware. [See also: Geoff Dyer's English journey] Related
Daily Record
10-06-2025
- Daily Record
'Deeply concerning' spike in attacks against women and girls on Scotland's trains
EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds of women were assaulted, harassed or faced unwanted sexual behaviour on the rail network last year prompting anger from campaigners. Violence and sexual attacks against women and girls on Scotland's trains surged by a fifth last year, shocking data has revealed. More than 200 women were assaulted, harassed or faced unwanted sexual behaviour on the rail network between April 2024 and March 31 this year. British Transport Police found 238 offences were committed against women and girls – up 19 per cent on the previous year. The surge in violence comes despite SNP ministers – who took ScotRail into public ownership three years ago – vowing to tackle violence against women and girls. Rail union RMT chiefs had also warned about the impact of staff cuts to ticket offices. Women's groups slammed the 'deeply concerning' increase in violence towards women. Jenni Snell, CEO of the Young Women's Movement in Scotland, said: 'These new statistics around violence and intimidation against women and girls on public transport are deeply concerning but unfortunately not surprising. 'Our Status of Young Women in Scotland 2024-25 research found that public transport is the place where young women feel the least safe – even when compared to other public places like parks or online spaces. 'The upward trend of these violent crimes is not happening in a vacuum. 'It reflects a wider, systemic rise in misogyny and abuse.' British Transport Police chiefs revealed the grim findings at a meeting in Edinburgh last week. The rate of crimes solved also slumped by five per cent. About two-thirds of these were violent crimes while more than 30 per cent were sexual – including sexual assaults, harassment, exposure and communicating indecently. There was also a 60 per cent hike in attacks on female staff. A 2023 RMT survey found a third of female ScotRail workers have been sexually harassed. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: 'A 19 per cent rise in violence and intimidation against women and girls is wholly unacceptable. 'These figures back up what our women members have been telling us – the abuse is real, it is widespread and it is getting worse. 'The best way to prevent assaults and abuse of staff is a fully publicly owned, well funded and adequately staffed railway.' The stats, discussed at BTP's Scottish railways policing committee last week, also show an alarming overall rise in crime on the railways. A total of 640 violent crimes were reported, up 16 per cent on the previous year. Tory community safety spokeswoman Sharon Dowey said: 'If SNP ministers are serious about tackling violence against women and girls, these figures should be a wake-up call for them to ensure females feel safe at all times, including on our trains.' ScotRail spent £1.6million last year to triple the number of body-worn cameras and hire workers to double staff late-night trains on problem routes as part of measures to improve safety. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Customer operations director Phil Campbell said: 'We will continue to work closely with the British Transport Police to make sure people – particularly women and girls – feel safe while they're travelling.' The Transport Scotland quango said a working group was set up to assess enforcement powers against antisocial behaviour on trains to consider 'where these can be strengthened or developed further'. A BTP spokesman said: "There is absolutely no place for violent or intimidating behaviour on the railway network, whether it is targeted towards women and girls travelling across the network, or towards railway staff who are simply doing their job. "We are aware that every offence is one too many, and we have officers across the rail network around the clock, at stations and on trains, to detect and deter crimes and reassure the public."
Telegraph
05-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Outsourcing train cleaners is racist, says RMT union
Outsourcing train cleaners is racist, the RMT rail union has said. The union said that it wanted to end 'exploitative' agency hiring on the railways. It said outsourcing trapped thousands of black and minority ethnic staff in insecure jobs without pensions, training or promotion prospects, creating an 'effectively segregated' workforce. Outsourcing also lowered service standards across the rail network, the union said, as it called on the Government to bring the agency workers in-house. Eddie Dempsey, general secretary, said the RMT intended to fight 'tooth and nail' to hold Sir Keir Starmer to his promise to oversee 'the biggest wave of in-sourcing for a generation'. Mr Dempsey said black and ethnic minority workers 'bear the major brunt of this super-exploitation and are effectively trapped in second-class employment, unable to progress in a train company or Network Rail'. These claims are detailed in a new report, How Outsourcing Embeds Systemic Racism on the Railway, published on Tuesday. The report found that 58 per cent of outsourced cleaners and caterers were non-white, compared with a quarter of staff employed directly by train operators. People of African ethnic origin made up 22 per cent of all outsourced cleaners, but only five per cent of the workforce at National Rail and other operators. To understand the impact of this disparity, the RMT surveyed more than 500 outsourced workers. It said the results 'shed light on how outsourcing creates occupational segregation' and is 'reproducing systemic racism'. Lack career opportunities Train company employees have benefits, training and career progression that agency workers do not, despite working alongside one another on a daily basis, the union said. Seventy-seven per cent of black and minority ethnic respondents reported having never discussed a promotion, and 68 per cent said they had had no further training in the past three years. One respondent told the RMT: 'The only time the manager talks to his employees is to discipline them. I'd probably get the sack for asking.' Not all those surveyed wanted to move to a different role, with some just wanting to be properly paid and recognised. 'I'm happy being a cleaner but would be happier working for LNER, to be the same as the other station employees,' said another respondent. The report said: 'The prolific use of outsourcing by private train operating companies, and the failure to challenge this on the part of Network Rail and the publicly owned TOCs [train operating companies] has led to a significant level of ethnic and racial segregation in the rail workforce.' Eighty-three per cent of those surveyed said they believed passengers would get better service if roles were brought in-house under Great British Railways. 'We would be given proper training on how to deal with the customer and give the customers much better advice,' said one respondent. Another suggested the Government could reinvest money not spent on private contractors in improving train services. A spokesman for Network Rail said: 'Network Rail has a history of insourcing since deciding to bring the day-to day maintenance of our railway 'in-house' in 2004 when 15,000 workers were moved from private contractors, into Network Rail. 'The day-to-day safe running, operation and maintenance of our railway is delivered by direct employees.' A Department for Transport (DtT) spokesman told The Telegraph: 'Diversity and inclusion is pivotal to any industry's success, and we will continue working with industry to ensure everyone that works on our network is valued and respected.' The spokesman said Labour's plan to renationalise the railways, creating a Great British Railways state-owned enterprise, 'will sweep away decades of failure, ending fragmentation and waste and delivering for passengers, taxpayers and staff.'
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Merseyrail strike called off last-minute after improved pay offer
Merseyrail cleaners have suspended their planned strike action after receiving an improved pay offer. Outsourced cleaners working on the rail service had announced their plans to walk out last month following a pay dispute with Churchill Services. The 48-hour strike was due to begin on Friday, April 4, as trade union RMT said staff had been left with "no other option". The improved offer will now be put to a referendum which will close on April 10, and the union is "strongly recommending" members to accept. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey, congratulating outsourced members at Merseyrail for standing firm in their campaign for better pay terms and conditions, said: 'This is a great victory for some of our lowest paid workers with an improved offer of nearly seven per cent, 20 days of sick pay and improved overtime rates. READ MORE: Jet2 says do this 'at least 12 hours before your flight' READ MORE: Rise in toll fees on Mersey bridges branded 'a disgrace' "This win would not have been possible without the strong resolve of our members. It remains our view that these workers should be insourced immediately so they can receive the same terms and conditions as directly employed Merseyrail staff." Churchill Services has been approached for comment. In strikes elsewhere, hundreds of workers at Livv Housing (LH) voted to escalate strike action which could result in six more months of disruption for thousands of tenants. Livv Housing disputes the 'union-busting' claim and said the contractors tasked with delivering some of its services are simply part of its ongoing 'delivery model'. Staff at the Knowsley-based housing association have been locked in a dispute with their employer for months and voted in favour of industrial action over a proposed pay offer last summer. This weekend is due to be busy across the Merseyrail network with tens of thousands of people expected to descend on Merseyside for the Grand National festival. Tens of thousands of people are expected to use the rail network throughout this weekend, with Merseyrail setting up services to get them from the heart of town out to the course on time and back again on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Trains on the Northern line are also running on a slightly amended schedule from April 3 to 5. Changes are also being made to services around Aughton Park, Town Green, Ormskirk and Hunts Cross. As always, Merseyrail staff will be handing out their famous flip-flops to anyone with sore feet after a long day at the races. A seven-and-a-half-minute service will operate between Aintree and Liverpool Central/Moorfields from 10am to 1pm before the event begins and recommencing from 4.30pm to 8pm after last races. To allow the Grand National timetable to operate, Aughton Park and Town Green stations will have a 30-minute service from Thursday to Saturday. Direct services will not run between Ormskirk and Hunts Cross throughout the event days. Customers travelling between the stations are advised to change trains at Moorfields. During the period when seven-and-a-half minute services run in the morning and evening, services on the Headbolt Lane line will start and end at Sandhills. Customers for Moorfields or Liverpool Central, or those making the return journey to Rice Lane, Fazakerley, Kirkby, or Headbolt Lane are advised to use Southport or Ormskirk services and change at Sandhills during these times. Amendments will be made for Southport and Hunts Cross passengers. Customers travelling to the races from any Wirral line stations are advised to change at Moorfields for an Aintree-bound train. Customers can find the latest departure times by using the journey planner on the Merseyrail website or mobile app. Alternatively, they can speak to a staff member at their local staffed station for assistance. For the latest news and breaking news visit Get all the big headlines, pictures, analysis, opinion and video on the stories that matter to you by signing up to our daily and breaking newsletter. Sign up to our breaking news newsletter here. Follow us on X @LivECHONews or on Bluesky @ - official Liverpool ECHO accounts - real news in real time. We're also on Facebook/theliverpoolecho - your must-see news, features, videos and pictures throughout the day from the Liverpool ECHO.
BBC News
11-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Merseyrail cleaners dispute ends as pay offer accepted
A dispute between cleaners on the Merseyrail transport netrwork and the outsourcing firm Churchill Services has ended after workers accepted a pay members, who had threatened 48-hour strike action during the Grand National race festival, voted overwhelmingly to accept the offer, the RMT union new agreement includes a six per cent pay rise backdated to April 2023, a further five per cent from April 2024, improved sick pay, and an uplift to a £15 minimum hourly rate from April 2025 It maked a "significant victory for the low-paid cleaning workforce", the RMT said. Churchill Services declined to comment. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said the victory was down to the "guts and determination of members who stood strong throughout the dispute"."They have won better pay, better conditions, and the respect they deserve," he said."But this win should not have taken strike action to settle as cleaners working on Merseyrail should not be outsourced in the first place."Merseyrail needs to be brought back into full public ownership, and that means bringing cleaning staff back in-house where they belong."As long as profiteering contractors like Churchill are involved, workers will always be fighting uphill."Public transport should be run in the public interest – not to line the pockets of private firms."Merseyrail have been contacted for comment. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
